I am pleased to report that I have met with a certified electrical contractor who said that ALL of my wiring was installed according to code.

The electrician showed up, he was very friendly, he looked everything over and said there were no problems. There was one minor that will require putting in a lower amperage circuit breaker in one spot. He said my computer controller which is mounted directly on the side of the subpanel with this ridiculously large conduit was all totally fine. He said the inspector may not really know what it is, but he wouldnt flag it either. (I’m still waiting to figure out how that’s gonna work).

I also went over all the framing, he said it was fine. Then we sat around and gabbed about the absurd price of houses in Canton.

The next step will be for him to put in permits for the framing and wiring and then we’ll call in the city inspector. This is suUUUuuuch a relief! Best of all my wiring will be totally legit now.

…he was very friendly and seems to be taking it in stride. He said a couple of his sons are electrical contractors and they could look at the work on Friday. I guess that would be good news if I had any confidence that a standard issue electrical contractor is going to like my work.

Since I’ve occupied the house there has been an oppressive and Creepy Rag Lady (CRL) that lives next door. The CRL clearly has a personality disorder. She is a hoarder, and years ago collected so much garbage in her house that it was condemned by the city. Remarkably, she also managed to get the city to pay for full rehabilitation of the house. The house was fully restored and as soon as she moved back in she returned bags and bags of trash that were put into storage back into the rehabbed house. The smell has been so bad at times that the young parents living neighboring house connected to hers had to move out. She’s been involved in several strange incidents including hoarding garbage in her vehicle to the point that you cant see anything but trash up to the Suburban’s interior ceiling. She also doesnt like it when people park too close to her car, so if people are too close she just drives her bumper into theirs as she’s pulling out of her spot. The CRL is simply just a horrible person.

So I’m not sure when but I got on her bad side. She yelled at me once for leaving the car in the short driveway in our sidewalk leading to my garage. Another time she said that all cars are supposed to be parked four feet apart and if I came too close it wasnt her problem if she damaged my vehicle when ramming it. Both times I was nice and said I’d take care of it. She started giving me eye-fucking stares when ever she saw me, and after that two of my tires have been flattened because of nails. Both suspiciously appeared in each tire right around the same time. Since then I’ve just ignored her hoping she’d tweak out on someone else and stop focusing her attention toward me. Unfortunately the CRL hasnt gotten enough time acting as a troll under someone else’s bridge, and disaster has struck.

The CRL elected to email pictures of my garage to city. I got a call from a city inspector who said unless I get permits for the restoration work on the back garages. He was very understanding and said he’d work with me as best he can. He openly stated this was the work of a neighborhood busy-body. He gave me one week to get permits or I’d be hit with a stop work order and a $1,000 fine.

I’m going to have to come completely clean with my landlord about the work in the shop and hope he can help me get permits for the framing and electrical work. This leaves me at the his mercy to completely go over all the work I’ve done so far, and assist with getting contractors to cover that they’ve done the work. He has a small contracting business, and hopefully we will be able to work inside the family. What makes me anxious is that at this point I have some fairly non-standard wiring going from a subpanel to the laser platform, I’ve poured concrete pads, knocked holes in the wall for ventilation, moved plumbing, put in plumbing for the chiller as well as put insulation, lighting and conduit is running just about everywhere.

I’m sitting in Panera waiting to hear back from my landlord. Hopefully he’ll come back from lunch and I can talk it all over with him, see the shop and get the permits moving. The week and next week is fucked for me; I have to attend a ‘blue ribbon panel’ for the NIH tomorrow, and next week I’m running a 40-person meeting where all my peers are coming into town for a conference. Even with full cooperation from the landlord getting the permits in the time frame of a week is going to be a significant challenge.